Search for MH370
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THEY are the Royal Australian Air Force officers with the eyes of the world on them as they search for signs of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 off the coast of WA.

They’ve flown in Iraq and been fired on in the skies over Afghanistan, but say this is a “defining” mission of their careers.

The Sunday Times was aboard a 10-hour flight in an RAAF Hercules C-130 this week for an insider’s look at the hunt to solve history’s most perplexing jetliner disappearance and to meet the men at the forefront of the search.

The pilot, Flt-Lt Conan Brett, 33, who has served in Iraq and “had a few rounds shot at me” while flying in Afghanistan, said it would be a “career highlight” to help investigators with answers.

His co-pilot, Flying Officer Sam Dudman, a West Australian, is only 25 but has also served in Iraq and Afghanistan and rates this mission as “one of my most important”.

Flt-Sgt John Macey, 44, said being part of the hunt for the missing jetliner was “a buzz”. He said it was his “first time in the spotlight” despite 25 years in the defence forces and two tours of Afghanistan. where he worked as a Hercules “loadmaster” transporting soldiers and carrying out troop insertions and medical evacuations.

Sergeant Adam Roberts, 30, who was deploying the buoys from the open rear ramp of the aircraft, said: “It’s good to be helping out.”

They are among three RAAF crews and a US and a New Zealand aircraft crew who joined in the hunt for signs of the missing jetliner this week.

On Thursday, when The Sunday Times was aboard, the Hercules was tasked to fly 3200km to the search area five hours from the WA coast, drop two “self-locating data marker buoys” and fly home.

The buoys, used normally to detect submarines, are beaming data and drift patterns to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority via satellite, helping to narrow the search area from a massive 305,000sq km grid.

Flt-Lt Brett, who was flying in East Timor last week, admitted the search was “like looking for a needle in a haystack” but they were doing everything they could to help.

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